


This Is Where Our Story Begins

by TsingaDark



Series: Our Story [1]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe, First Meetings, Fluff, M/M, Meteorologist Phil, Writer Dan - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-17
Updated: 2016-07-17
Packaged: 2018-07-24 15:11:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7512991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TsingaDark/pseuds/TsingaDark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On his flight to New York Dan sits next to a gorgeous guy who just so happens to be reading the book Dan wrote a few years back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Is Where Our Story Begins

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shamrock_girl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shamrock_girl/gifts).



> honestly, didn't even want to upload this at first but then I thought "why the heck not" (also bc my best friend encouraged me to do so)

Dan is tired. If he weren’t about to board a plane to fly to New York for a Very Important Meeting, he would look for the next available horizontal surface and fall asleep. He could probably fall asleep in this chair as well, now that he thinks about it. Normally he absolutely hates the plastic chairs that are situated in the waiting areas in airports but now he can’t think of anything more comfortable, except for his bed maybe which, unfortunately, is about thirty kilometres away, entirely out of reach.

He’s kind of glad there’s a small child that keeps screaming their head off, their parents not being able to get it to keep quiet. Otherwise he definitely would’ve fallen asleep the minute he sat down and missed his flight. He can’t believe that only yesterday he actually thought it was a good idea to stay up playing Super Mario Smash Bros even though he knew he had to get up at 5 am. What can he say, sometimes he doesn’t make the best decisions.

Then boarding starts and for a moment Dan is too tired to even get up but then he thinks about the even comfier seat on the plane and even though it’ll be cramped as heck and his legs will start to hurt after an hour or two, he gets up with as much enthusiasm as he can muster, considering he’s had about two hours of sleep.

It’s when he’s in the plane already that he notices he has the seat in the middle. Not only will he probably be crushed between the people on either side of him since those spaces always seem to be made in mind of scrawny, paper-thin people, also, the person who’s lucky to have gotten the window seat is nowhere to be seen. Dan really doesn’t want to sit down until that person has arrived because he knows he’ll fall asleep as soon as his bum hits the seat and he definitely does not appreciate someone sticking their ass or crotch in his face while trying to get past. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a choice as there are other passengers wanting to get past him and there’s only so many times he can ignore the annoyed huffs of people squeezing past him in an aisle that’s only made to fit one person at a time.

After storing away his hand luggage in the over head compartment, he eventually sits down and immediately feels his eyes drifting shut. He stops himself by sinking his teeth into his lips. With the force he needs to keep him awake he will most definitely break the skin and make his lip bleed but it’s not like he’s not used to it. Every time he’s pondering about difficult scenes while writing he bites his lips and about ninety percent of those times he actually manages to draw blood.

Minutes tick by and he can’t help but start to get angry at the person that’s supposed to sit next to him. He knows it’s stupid and irrational. It’s not the other person’s fault that not everyone can board the plane at the same time. But still, why does this need to happen to him? Why today? No matter that this is Dan’s own fault in the first place because he’d rather played Super Mario than slept.

Dan thinks he’s actually going to explode when suddenly there is a soft voice to his right and he looks up into the face of the most gorgeous man ever. His blue eyes framed by dark-rimmed glasses stare at him and it takes a moment for Dan to realize that he’s being spoken to. Dan entirely blames this on his tiredness and not on the handsome man that’s looking like personified sunshine with the most colourful t-shirt Dan has ever seen.

He hastily gets up to make room for the guy and almost trips over his own feet but catches himself at the last minute. Not that he would’ve fallen very low since the confined space wouldn’t be able to take all of his limbs anyway.

He swears he can hear the guy chuckle when he goes past him to his seat but he could’ve also totally imagined that so he follows him and plunks himself down heavily.

He shimmies around in his seat a bit to make himself as comfortable as possible and has almost closed his eyes when he notices the book on the lap of Gorgeous Guy (since Dan doesn’t know his name he thinks it’s totally justifiable he calls him that).

_What?_

Is that…? _Yes_ , that most definitely is Dan’s first novel that’s been out for almost two years now. Dan can’t help but stare at the cover that shows a completely empty and dimly lit street in London. He had specifically asked for that street to be photographed and put on the cover as it had inspired him to write the novel in the first place.

Of course he would be the one to sit next to the probably one person on this plane that actually possesses his first book while he’s on the way to a meeting about his _next_ book. Well, he can’t possibly sleep now, can he? Suddenly he’s eight years old again and sitting on the couch next to his Mum who’s reading the poorly written story about a boy and a dog he’d thrust into her hand a few minutes ago, insisting that she go read the story _right this instant_. He remembers the anticipation he’d felt at watching his Mum’s face for even the tiniest of reactions to his story and he wants the guy to open the book right now and start reading.

Of course he knows all about the good and sometimes not so good reviews the book had gotten but not even once had he been able to watch someone reading it. Actually, now that he thinks about it, that sounds kind of weird and it’s probably a good thing that hasn’t happened before.

Nevertheless, he can’t help but stare at the man with the brightly coloured t-shirt who is oblivious to what Dan’s going through and is staring out of the window even though they haven’t even taken off yet. Well, it doesn’t happen every day that you sit next to the author of the book you’re reading, Dan supposes, so he has every right to look at the boring grey airport building instead of reading.

Finally, after the plane’s taken off and they slowly start to build up on height, the man opens up the book about half way through where a tattered receipt serving as a bookmark had indicated the page where he’d last stopped reading.

Dan can’t see which page he is on nevertheless read what is happening in the story unless he leans in but he really doesn’t want the guy to think he is a creep so he keeps staring at this face instead. Which, now that he thinks about it, is creepy enough as it is. He should probably just stop, eat something, sleep and then ask the guy what he thought of the book after they’ve landed in New York. But somehow Dan can’t tear his gaze away. He sees the concentrated look on the guy’s face while reading, the little smile that starts lighting up his whole face and then the laugh he can’t suppress at what Dan guesses must be a particularly funny part.

“Is it good?” Dan hears himself asking and suddenly those bright eyes are looking at him again and Dan notices that they’re not actually just blue. They’ve got speckles of green and yellow as well and Dan thinks that it kind of suits him. His eyes are as colourful as his shirt.

“Sorry?” Gorgeous Guy asks confused.

“The book,” Dan gestures to his novel.

“Oh.” Gorgeous Guy’s eyes light up in understanding. “Yeah, it’s amazing,” he says and smiles. It’s so genuine that Dan’s heart hurts a little bit. He doesn’t know why but this random guy’s opinion means a lot to him. It might just be the tiredness that lets him overreact but at this moment Dan doesn’t feel tired one bit anymore.

“I love the main character, Ian, he’s so complex and he’s not afraid to show emotions. He kind of reminds me of myself.” Gorgeous Guy’s cheeks grow red and he ducks his head to show his obvious embarrassment at being so enthusiastic about the book. Dan absolutely loves it.

“That’s great,” Dan says. “I mean, a book is only as good as the complexity of the characters.” He can’t believe he’s actually talking about his own book like this.

“And the story is an emotional rollercoaster as well. In a good way, of course. It makes me want to actually go outside and experience life to the fullest.” He’s smiling again and Dan feels himself mirroring him.

“That’s what a good story should do,” he replies. Now he is smiling so much that his cheeks start to hurt.

“I’m Phil, by the way,” Gorgeous G- _Phil_ says. The name really suits him, even though he seems more complex than his name, more colourful, more... just _more_.

“Dan,” he introduces himself and they awkwardly shake hands.

“Just like him,” Phil jokes and points to Dan’s name on the cover of the book that’s now resting on his lap.

“Yeah.” Dan laughs a bit awkwardly and hopes to God that Phil doesn’t notice how uncomfortable he is all of a sudden. He can feel his cheeks heat up and he’s kind of glad he only ever gets this one red spot on the right side of his jaw which Phil can’t see since he’s sitting on his other side.

“Ehm, I don’t want to keep you from reading,” he quickly says.

“Oh, that’s okay,” Phil replies and Dan could’ve sworn to have heard disappointment in his voice but he isn’t sure and Phil still looks all smiley and friendly, so he shrugs it off.

They fall into silence and soon the uncomfortable feeling that had settled in Dan’s stomach wears off and gets replaced by tiredness. He can feel sleep tug at his limbs and sinks even further into the seat until he falls into a dreamless darkness.

 

*

 

Dan wakes with a start. For a moment he doesn’t know where he is but then he becomes aware of the airplane noises and the background chatter of the other passengers. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and sees that he’s actually slept for about seven and a half hours and that they’re almost in New York.

He gazes outside the window and notices that Phil’s fallen asleep. The book is still situated on his lap but judging from the receipt that he’d used as bookmark that’s now lying on top of the book, he actually finished it while Dan was sleeping.

Dan wonders how Phil liked the rest of the novel. He seemed quite positive about the first half of it but Dan asks himself if Phil also liked the further character development and especially if he liked the ending. He wants to ask him so badly that he feels an itch in his fingers, but he stops himself from actually reaching out and waking Phil because they don’t even know each other and that would be just plain rude.

So Dan waits. He waits ten minutes and then another ten minutes and it’s then that he notices they’re almost there and Phil is still asleep. He guesses that Phil will probably wake up when the plane touches ground when he doesn’t even stir upon the announcement from the captain that they’re landing shortly.

He carefully reaches for the book and only realizes what he’s doing when it’s successfully in his hands instead of Phil’s. He sighs and asks himself for about the millionth time why God has made him this way as he rummages around his coat pockets for a pen. Finally he finds one, opens the first page of the book and writes out a small message for Phil with his phone number underneath. As soon as he’s finished he realizes that the possibility exists that this isn’t even Phil’s copy. He could’ve borrowed it from a friend or family member. Dan wants to hit himself in the head but instead he quickly adds underneath the message that he’ll be more than happy to send Phil another copy of the book if he doesn’t like Dan ruining it by writing in it without asking.

He really hopes that Phil will open the book again as soon as he wakes up instead of binning it the minute he gets off the plane but from the brief time that he got to know him, he seems to be the kind of person that keeps all the books they read and treats them like friends. Which sounds lonely and kind of sad but as an author Dan thinks that treating something he created with the utmost care is the highest compliment someone can make him. He cautiously puts the book back the way it was before without waking Phil.

As predicted, Phil wakes up seconds before they actually land and Dan is very, very glad that he stole Phil’s book, even if only for a few minutes, to write down his message.

Phil is completely oblivious to what happened and is rubbing sleep out of his eyes when the book nearly falls down onto the floor. Dan almost has a mini heart attack but Phil catches it at the last minute and, judging from the shocked look on his face, he’s almost as surprised as Dan by having actually caught it. He laughs and blushes while throwing a quick glance in Dan’s direction.

Dan very badly wants to say something but he doesn’t know what. He knows he’s being awkward but he can’t help himself and so they’re quiet while getting off the plane and it’s only when they are at the baggage claim area that he notices that Phil’s standing next to him. He stares at Phil’s profile, not even bothering to look for his suitcase until suddenly Phil’s moving forward to get his luggage and Dan’s ripped out of his trance. He quickly moves forward as well to look for his own luggage and spots it at not quite the end of the belt. He shimmies through the masses of people and manages to grab it before it disappears again.

Relieved, he sighs and turns around, only to collide with another person.

“Sorry!” he basically shouts while stumbling backwards a few steps. He lifts his gaze to see a surprised looking Phil who clearly didn’t anticipate Dan literally running into him.

“Sorry, that was my fault,” Phil says and smiles apologetically. “Are you okay?” he then adds and Dan realises he’s staring at Phil.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” He coughs and then smiles a bit awkwardly while clutching hard at his suitcase’s handle.

“I wanted to give you this,” Phil then says and hands him a little card. Upon further inspection Dan sees that it’s a business card.

 _Phil Lester, Meteorologist_ it says with a phone number underneath.

Dan glances back up to Phil again. He has a shy but expectant look on his face and Dan can’t help but smile. This changes everything.

“Thank you,” he says sincerely and puts the card in the right pocket of his jeans where his phone is as well so he won’t forget to take the card out before putting the jeans into the wash. Not that he’ll forget because he knows he will feel the weight of the card in his pocket the entire time.

“Ehm, right.” Phil grips the handle of his suitcase so forcefully that his knuckles turn white. “I’ll better be off,” he says and goes to turn around.

“Have a safe journey,” Dan says and then Phil’s gone and Dan’s standing in a mass of people, not really noticing any of them until a broad man bumps into him and he remembers that there’s a taxi waiting for him outside.

For the whole journey to the hotel he’s staying at while in New York and then the hotel where the meeting is taking place the smile is a permanent fixture on his face and every time he sees a person with a colourful shirt he immediately thinks of Phil. He wonders what Phil’s doing in New York, if he works here or if he’s here on vacation. But most of all he wonders when Phil will discover his message. He decides to send Phil a sneaky text to have a look at the first page if he hasn’t contacted him in a few days – maybe even tomorrow because honestly, Dan has the feeling that Phil’s the person he’s been waiting for his entire life and he doesn’t want to waste another minute without him.

He already knows who he will dedicate his new book to.

 

*

 

Exhausted, Phil lets himself fall down onto the hotel bed face first. His day has been extremely strenuous, with catching a flight in the early morning and then spending the day running around New York, looking at all the important sights. Even though Phil has been to the States a few times, mostly New York, up until today he hadn’t had the chance to do all the tourist-y stuff.

He turns onto his back and gazes outside the big window that’s revealing a fantastic view of New York’s skyline. The sun is setting and submerging everything into a golden light and Phil can’t help but fall a little bit in love with this city, even though he never thought he could like such a big city that much.

He lets his gaze wander over the hotel room, the beige coloured walls, the wooden furniture and eventually gets up to sort out his luggage. It’s when he’s rummaging through his galaxy print rucksack that suddenly the book he’d finished on the flight over is in his hands. He stares at the cover for a while, admiring the artistic shot that graces the front.

He doesn’t know why he does it but his hands automatically move to open the book and he almost misses the scribbling on the first page by skipping over it but he stops as soon as he catches a glimpse of it from the corner of his eye.

Confused, he goes to sit down on the bed, nearly missing it and falling on the brown carpet because he’s so entranced by the writing.

He reads it, and then reads it again. And then a third time because he can’t quite believe what he’s seeing. Dan wrote a message in his book saying that Phil looks cute when he sleeps and oops, that might’ve come out creepier than intended. Phil laughs at that and he can all too well remember how Dan had looked asleep in the tiny plane seat, his arms wrapped tightly around his body as if he was trying to mimic someone holding him. In that moment Phil had kind of wanted it to be him holding Dan. It’d been that moment that Phil had decided he would give Dan his phone number. But then he’d fallen asleep and had only woken up shortly before landing and he’d been too sleepy to remember until he’d grabbed his suitcase. He’s very glad that’s when he’d noticed that Dan wasn’t next to him anymore and he’d gone to look for him.

Even though it’d been kind of fruitless since Dan had given him his number even before that but it’s nice to know that it’s a mutual thing and not just Phil being creepy by giving a handsome stranger his business card.

Phil goes to retrieve his phone from his jacket and puts Dan’s number into it. At first he isn’t quite sure if he should send Dan a text right this moment or if he should rather wait until tomorrow. But then he remembers that Dan actually stole his book – even if it was only for a few minutes – to write his phone number in it and Phil knows that Dan’s probably waiting for him to discover it and text him.

He writes a short message saying that it’s him, Phil, and that the book is his but thanks for offering to buy him a new one. Butterflies wreck havoc in his stomach as he hits send and he knows he’s being childish but he throws the phone on the bed behind him, too nervous to hold it in his hands and wait for a reply.

His gaze wanders back to the book that’s now lying beside him on the bed and he gets his macbook and boots it up. As soon as he’s able to he opens Google. He types in the name of the author, Dan Howell, and clicks on the first link that pops up, the author’s homepage. There’s a few entries regarding his new book that’s coming out soon, which Phil is already very excited about because this guy’s writing is like being in heaven. He scrolls down a bit until he gets bored and clicks on the ‘About’ page. As soon as he sees the professional picture that’s also normally at the end of a book, he stops breathing for a second.

What?

Apparently the universe thought that today hadn’t been exciting enough for Phil because from the screen of his dusty macbook Dan smiles at him; the Dan who he sat next to on the plane, who’s also clearly the author of the book Phil read.

Well, that certainly explains why he was so eager to talk about it and hear Phil’s opinion on it. Phil asks himself if Dan does that often; talk to strangers about his book, not revealing that he’s actually the one who wrote it.

Either way, Phil’s excitement levels just went up to about a hundred and he closes the macbook to reach for his phone.

 

_‘Hi Dan, or should I say Mr.Howell? ^_^ It’s me again, Phil. Would love to talk some more about your book. Dinner tomorrow evening?’_

_  
_

Phil can’t stop grinning while he presses send and he even giggles a bit as he lets himself fall backwards on the soft sheets. Today’s been the best day he’s had in a while but tomorrow will probably be even better.

**Author's Note:**

> as always, let me know if you liked it! 
> 
> you can also talk to me on [my tumblr](https://tsingadark.tumblr.com)


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